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The Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS.edu) is the largest public policy Ph.D. program in the nation and the only program based at an independent public policy research organization—the RAND Corporation.

Overview

Debra Knopman is a principal researcher at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her expertise is in hydrology, environmental and natural resources policy, systems analysis and operations research, and public administration. Her project work spans a range of topics including long-term water management, policy options for disposition of nuclear waste, governance and funding for U.S. Gulf Coast recovery, and the design of a National Research Fund for Qatar. Knopman served for six years (1997–2003) as a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and chaired the board's Site Characterization Panel. She was the director of the Progressive Policy Institute's Center for Innovation and the Environment from 1995 to 2000. From 1993 to 1995, Knopman was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior. She had previously been a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and later chief of the Branch of Systems Analysis in the USGS's Water Resources Division. From 1979 to 1983, she served first as legislative assistant for energy and environmental issues to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan and then as professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Knopman earned her Ph.D. in geography and environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Recent Media Appearances

Commentary

President Obama's executive order that directs federal agencies to plan and build for higher flood levels as they construct new projects in flood-prone regions will affect hundreds of billions of dollars of future public works projects. In an ideal world, planners would estimate the benefits and costs for each project, taking into account everything from the details of the local landscape to the potential for adaptive responses over time.

President Obama's task force on gun violence has raised the stakes in the policy debate on gun control and policy in the wake of the recent shootings in Colorado and Connecticut. Some of RAND's top researchers share what is, and what isn't, known about firearms and gun control.

The massive damage and disruption caused by “Super Storm” Sandy has created a rare moment when New York City, New Jersey and surrounding areas are singularly focused on the infrastructure they need in a changing environment – not just the infrastructure they already have thanks to the vision and investments of past generations.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana used a new analytic approach, developed in part by RAND, that incorporates results from predictive models in a decision tool to allow formulation and comparison of alternatives.

Report describes RAND contributions to Louisiana's Coastal Master Plan for policymakers in other coastal regions. It highlights the value of a solid technical foundation to support decisionmaking on strategies to protect and restore coastal regions.

The Colorado River Basin Study evaluated the river system's resiliency and compared resource management options. This report describes RAND's contributions, focusing on methodologies used to identify vulnerabilities and compare portfolios of options.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana used a new analytic approach, developed in part by RAND, that incorporates results from predictive models in a decision tool to allow formulation and comparison of alternatives.

Describes the steps needed to design a new organization for the management and disposition of commercial and defense high-level radioactive materials, with particular focus on the relationship of the organization to the President and Congress.

RAND researchers describe the attributes of potential organizational models and the steps needed to choose the form of a new organization charged with managing and disposing of commercial and defense high-level radioactive materials.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Planning Tool provided technical analysis for Louisiana's Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. This document is a technical description of the tool and associated analyses.

The United States has yet to implement a strategy for managing spent nuclear fuel. This book examines technical and institutional approaches to spent fuel management and highlights policy implications of pursuing alternative strategies.

This report documents the design and business and implementation plans that the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute recommended in 2004 to the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development for its Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).

This research brief summarizes work with Southern California's Inland Empire Utilities Agency to help it identify climate-change vulnerabilities in its long-term water plans and evaluate its most effective options for managing those risks.

RAND researchers are working with water agencies in California to help them better understand how climate change might affect their systems and what actions they may need to take to address this challenge. This report documents the study.

Outlines the wisdom of bearing the up-front costs for publicly funded high-quality early childhood intervention programs so that society can reap the plentiful returns over time; also reviews energy security, obesity, and national security issues.

This report presents a new approach to assessing natural gas and oil resources that is intended to help guide strategic land use planning by expanding the scope of these assessments to include economic and environmental considerations.

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